Wednesday Word: Tiffin

tiffin |ˈtifin| nounIndian or dated a light meal, especially lunch.ORIGIN early 19th cent.: apparently from dialect tiffing‘sipping,’ of unknown origin.
I don't remember where I picked up this word, but it must've been something British.

Wednesday: Penumbra

penumbra |peˈnəmbrə| noun (pl. penumbrae |-brē, -brī| or penumbras) the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object.• Astronomy the shadow cast by the earth or moon over an area experiencing a partial eclipse.• Astronomy the less dark outer part of a sunspot, surrounding the dark core.DERIVATIVES penumbral |-brəl| adjectiveORIGIN mid 17th cent.: modern Latin, from Latinpaene ‘almost’ + umbra ‘shadow.’
Not all shadows are created equal.

Wednesday Word: Ruminant

ruminant |ˈro͞omənənt| noun1 an even-toed ungulate mammal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen. The ruminants comprisethe cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives.
2 a contemplative person; a person given to meditation.adjectiveof or belonging to ruminants.ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin ruminant- ‘chewing over again,’ from the verb ruminari, from rumen ‘throat’ (see rumen) .
So if someone says "You're such a ruminant!" they're either calling you a sheep or a deep thinker. Perhaps all sheep are deep thinkers.

Wednesday Word: Celerity

celerity |səˈleritē| noun archaic or literary swiftness of movement.ORIGIN late 15th cent.: from Old French celerite, from Latin celeritas, from celer ‘swift.’
Sometimes I wonder how and why word usage changes. I can understand "landau" going out of fashion, but what was wrong with "celerity"? Aside from sounding like a root vegetable.

Wednesday Word: Brumous

brumous |ˈbrəməs| adjective literary foggy; wintry.ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French brumeux, from late Latin brumosus (from bruma ‘winter’).
That's the local scene from about a month ago—it gets foggy in my 'hood once in a few years. Currently it's summer in LA with sunny skies and temperatures in the eighties. Not a drop of rain in sight. El Niño has been a big disappointment so far.

Cover-Off

Jordan Castillo Price is one of the first m/m authors I read, and she is part of the reason I started writing in the genre. So not surprisingly, I was a tad nervous meeting her in person at the Atlanta GRL, even though we had interacted only plenty times before. Fortunately, she was cool, and a little crazy, and we hit it off.

Jordan and I both design book covers too, and it's nice to have someone to talk shop with. It was her idea to do a design-off—both of us coming up with an original book cover using the same basic elements. These are the final result. Guess who did which one.

       

See the whole creative process in action on JCP's web page.

Wednesday Word: Tiffin

tiffin |ˈtifin| nounIndian or dated a light meal, especially lunch.ORIGIN early 19th cent.: apparently from dialect tiffing ‘sipping,’ of unknown origin.
So very British. I think I spotted it in a Ngaio Marsh novel.